Monitoring the health of equipment in the field has been a complicated and inaccurate endeavor. Previous patents have covered simple mechanisms such as the existence of electrical power to the equipment and the electromechanical actions of physical sensors. None of these methods has provided a detailed view of the health of the equipment, only an external view of its connectivity and mechanical properties. For convenience, we use “asset” to describe any equipment, item or article an aspect of which can be monitored or controlled remotely.
A system for automatically monitoring a copier is known in the art from U.S. Pat. No. 4,583,834. This device monitors a number of copying machines utilizing a number of sensors placed on the copier for sensing various operating parameters such as the number of copies made by the machine, machine malfunctions and the amount of toner remaining in the machine. Signals representing these parameters are transmitted to a centralized processor. The count value is transferred to the central processor at predetermined intervals. One of the disadvantages of this system is that it requires a dedicated interface having a complex structure receiving input signals from a plurality of distinct sensors provided within each machine. It also fails to notify a user of specific information such as preventive maintenance and contract termination dates. This system is not suitable for installation in existing machines not expressly designed for the system.
A second photocopier system is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,037 and includes a plurality of terminal devices provided at each copying machine and a central managing unit for managing the terminal devices. Each of the terminal devices receives input signals indicative of a plurality of user identifications of the copying machine and a second input signal indicative of utilization associated with each user at each copying machine. These data signals are stored and later transmitted to a central managing unit. The terminal receives a signal from the copying machine to which it is connected representing the number of copies made by the copying machine and which user made the copies. This information is transmitted to a central unit at a later date. One of the disadvantages of this system is that it does not monitor operating malfunctions of the copier or notify a service center when preventive maintenance is required.
Another monitoring system is known in the art from U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,582. This counter counts the number of papers processed by the copier producing a count signal. A monitoring system computer receives the count signal and increments a count value over a predetermined period. An interface circuit monitors the operation of the copier by monitoring the internal diagnostic signals of the copier as displayed on a photocopier display device associated with each copier. The interface circuit signals a central station when a malfunction of the copier has occurred, indicating the nature of the problem by translating the diagnostic signal and transmitting a translated diagnostic signal. A modem receives the accumulative count and diagnostic signals from the monitoring system computer and transmits each signal to the appropriate party at the central station.
The disadvantage of this prior art is its reliance on the mechanical counter interface and capturing the signals intended for the photocopier display device. In modern digital copy/print/fax/scan devices, commonly referred to as multi-function devices, these mechanical and display device interfaces are either non-existent or grossly inadequate to accurately capture performance and usage information from the device. The present invention overcomes this disadvantage by providing a direct digital interface through software, able to access device status, fault, usage, and log information that is not available mechanically.
As depicted in FIG. 1, the A2B software includes a Device Framework component [110 and 120] that can be connected through a digital interface to the device [Adjacent Deployment—130] or installed directly on the processor within the device to be monitored [Embedded Deployment—140]. A centralized Enterprise System [150] coordinates activities and provides user access to asset management applications. Communications between components occur through a variety of media, including wired Internet, dial-up telecommunications, and wireless.
Intelligent devices have grown in their own ability to self-diagnose and alert local users to fault situations through a control panel. In most cases, though, this information is only available to users or repair technicians physically at the location of the device. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,317,848, a system is described for recording data within the asset. Upon reaching a trigger point, an email is automatically sent to a number of email addresses containing a specially formatted data record of data that was previously recorded. The shortcomings of this approach include the limited flexibility in data retrieved, scheduling of transmissions, and reliance on email. The present invention allows for dynamic changes to the information retrieved, allowing greater or lesser visibility in to the functioning of the asset—saving data transmission costs when not necessary and providing additional detail when required. The current invention allows this to be configured from a centralized enterprise system and then directed to the specific asset without human interaction with that specific asset. In addition, the prior art established these parameters on the asset, requiring a physical presence at the asset to make changes. The current invention again allows a centralized enterprise system to control and update these parameters at any time.
For some recent computer-based equipment, remote computer control software has been used to allow the console of the equipment to be remotely located. This has progressed through the prior art from rudimentary text-based dialup terminal emulation to more sophisticated remote control systems that include the capability for graphics. Carbon Copy 32 from Compaq and LapLink from Traveling Software utilize “hooks” in the display subsystem of the remote computer to capture drawing requests and enabling a graphical user interface of the remote computer to be displayed at a user's local computer. PCAnywhere produced by Symantec of Cupertino, Calif. is an additional remote control program requiring server software on the remote computer in order to transfer graphics between computers of the same operating system. U.S. Pat. No. 5,732,212 discloses a system in which the video, keyboard and mouse ports of a remote computer are connected to a host unit and the video raster signal is converted to digital form. U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,895 discloses a system to provide control of a remote computer independent of the operating system by capturing the signals sent to and from peripheral devices such as the keyboard and display. In all of these previous cases, the intent of the invention was to allow a user to have access to a remote PC. The present invention does not require the presence of a user in order for monitoring information to be collected, transmitted, analyzed, and acted upon. It also does not require the remote access to be a personal computing device but instead has been designed to operate on a wide variety of specific operating systems, including Windows, Unix, and embedded real-time operating systems.
For computer to computer interaction that does not require a user to be present, the prior art includes the concept of a Remote Procedure Call (RPC) mechanism to communicate the invocation of server procedures. This approach worked well within the bounds of a business because the network communications were all trusted. To communicate with other businesses, or to communicate in any way across the public Internet, required a special security setup to create “holes” in the firewall protecting information systems. Most firewalls do permit HTTP traffic, the protocol used by browsers to retrieve web pages. This has given rise to a new model of RPC, known as Web Services. Based on text messages formatted with eXtensible Markup Language (XML), a new standard has emerged to package requests as messages. These standards, including WSDL (Web Service Description Language), SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), and XML, are gaining popularity for the interconnection of business systems—B2B (Business to Business) commerce—but have not been applied to the interconnection of individual intelligent assets.